...by Reader's Digest.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13452608/

Granted they only included 30 cities in the study, and NYC was the only one from the US. But still, shows all you people out there that the stereotype isn't entirely true.

6/21/2006 5:51:59 PM

What other cities were on there???

6/21/2006 5:53:32 PM

an american magazine/publication listed an american city as the most polite when it was the only american city on the list - oh yeah - this holds a whole lot of weight

6/21/2006 5:54:54 PM

that's only because you're there

6/21/2006 6:02:15 PM

Quote :

"The rudest continent is Asia, Readers Digest said. Eight out of nine cities tested there — including last place Mumbai, India — finished in the bottom 11. In Europe, Moscow and Bucharest ranked as the least polite."

haha. not surprising.



but this is also a cultural thing. what people consider polite or inappropriate in india is certainly different than it is in the US.

[Edited on June 21, 2006 at 6:10 PM. Reason : asdf]

6/21/2006 6:09:17 PM

That whole "test" is flawed to hell, top to bottom. How the hell can they make a headline saying New York named, when no one named shit. It's an informal

Quote :

"In its admittedly unscientific survey, the magazine’s politeness-police gave three types of tests to more than 2,000 unwitting participants."

(straight from the article)

and utterly whack three "test"s they use.

Edit

Quote :

"but this is also a cultural thing. what people consider polite or inappropriate in india is certainly different than it is in the US."

Yup, thats one thing for sure.

[Edited on June 21, 2006 at 6:11 PM. Reason : x]

6/21/2006 6:10:54 PM

Quote :

"but this is also a cultural thing. what people consider polite or inappropriate in india is certainly different than it is in the US."

Thats actually a thought that popped into my head as I was reading the article.

Quote :

"that's only because you're there "

You have an open invitation whenever you want

[Edited on June 21, 2006 at 7:06 PM. Reason : d]

6/21/2006 7:02:21 PM

Ya I was reading that in the Metro(one of the free papers distributed around the city), this morning..but I was in a shitty mood so I was def not being one of the polite NYrs today

6/21/2006 7:09:12 PM

^haha, yeah I read it in the Metro this morning too and I was like, who did this survey?

If you'd read the letters in Monday's Metro you would have seen one written by me

6/21/2006 7:11:10 PM

Quote :

"including last place Mumbai, India"

start the esgargs post countdown

6/21/2006 8:29:13 PM

NYC was a surprise. Mumbai was not, since we all see how esgargs acts

6/21/2006 8:52:00 PM

oh man

an American magazine called an Indian city rude.

6/21/2006 8:53:11 PM

im sure if they had a list for the world's filthiest cities Mumbai would be #1 Gargs

6/21/2006 8:56:19 PM

http://tinyurl.com/zfo5j

Dude, how can you call any city in India rude, generally speaking...did you forget the kind of welcome American presidents received during their visits?

To us, every guest is a God, and you can see that in pictures. Clinton dancing with the ladies, getting flowers showered on him, or Bush's wife being invited to go to a Sesame Street India recording.

Now, about filth, there were a life-talking floods in Mumbai last year...hundreds of people died...but Mumbai was back into business in a day...now compare that to New Orleans. Sure, you can argue that the hurricane was big...but definitely not big enough to disrupt lives for years...fact is...in America no one cares about others...in India, if somebody on the street falls down, hundreds would step up to help him instead of walking by or calling emergency.

[Edited on June 21, 2006 at 9:05 PM. Reason : .]

6/21/2006 8:59:54 PM

Just found this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060621/lf_afp/afplifestyleindia_060621155006

6/21/2006 9:04:49 PM

It may be true... in Bizarro World.

6/21/2006 9:15:46 PM

Note to reader: We have redefined "polite" to mean abrasive, sarcastic, finger-flipping, littering, double-parking, and generally unpleasent.

6/21/2006 9:21:20 PM

New Orleans is a dump too

What's your point?

6/21/2006 9:23:51 PM

My point is that you're a good representation of a polite place.

6/21/2006 9:27:19 PM

I grew up in DC, which is probably one of the rudest cities in the country and I live in San Diego which, besides LA or Miami, has probably the flakiest people I've ever met.

You can call me as rude as you want, but I'll keep on pointing out how dirty and slummed out Mumbai is

6/21/2006 9:34:35 PM

Quote :

"oh man an American magazine called an Indian city rude."

Quote :

"Reader’s Digest, which has readers in 21 languages, is publishing the results in its July issue."

Yeah, they don't care about ppl outside of the US. They totally did this to bash other countries.

[Edited on June 21, 2006 at 11:17 PM. Reason : k]

6/21/2006 11:16:54 PM

I'll be in NY for a week starting Friday.
I had a bad week.
I look forward to politeness.
The end.

6/22/2006 5:47:48 AM

since when is readers digest a reputable source?

6/22/2006 11:04:48 AM

i just love watered-down versions of bestselling novels!

6/22/2006 11:08:17 AM

Honestly when I was up there I was suprised how nice people were. I always was under the impression everyone was an asshole. Fuck most people I interacted with were more friendly than people in Raleigh.

6/22/2006 11:22:37 AM

I was also surprised at how different New Yorkers are from what I had in mind. They didn't want to stop and shoot the breeze, but the people I met were not rude and were reasonably friendly. I still wouldn't want to live there, but I wouldn't mind visiting again.

6/22/2006 1:31:55 PM

I want to live there for a few months and then come back. If I am ever in a position to do so I damn sure will.

6/22/2006 1:47:14 PM

I think people have a picture in their mind of NYC in the 80's when it was crime-ridden and a shit hole.

Since then the city has been cleaned up. And a lot of people come to the city to work from other areas of the country since its so much nicer. Thus, a lot of the ppl here aren't native NYC'ers. For instance, I can count on 2 hands the people that I know that GREW UP in the 5 boroughs.

6/22/2006 1:53:54 PM

I went to NYC for the first time this past spring break and I loved it. I seriously did not encounter any rude people at all, or even any homeless people, really, except for like 2 in times square, compared with the bums in durham who stake out my car. Everything in New York was really clean and the people were polite.

Another misconception is that the French are rude. They are the nicest people I have ever met, but they are just not very warm from the get-go like Americans. While there are some people I'm sure are sick of dealing with tourists in Paris, everyone there the 4 times i've been has been wonderful and very helpful. Moreso when you get out of the city - the country people in the Loire Valley would let you sleep in their bed if you didn't have one. The only truly rude French person I've ever encountered was in a bakery in Paris...my sister and I were going to sit down and eat the pastries we had bought and the owner woman started yelling at as in French and basically chased us out with a broom. Maybe they were closed or something? *shrugs*

6/22/2006 2:07:24 PM

my encounters with a handful of french-canadians in canada were not very positive.

6/22/2006 3:00:52 PM

my encounters with a handful of non-french-canadians in canada were not very positive.

6/22/2006 3:12:58 PM

The difference between polite and friendly is huge.

People who don't say please or thank you in a dining establishment (forgot how to spell restaraunt LOL), for example, may be the same folks who say to the hostess as they leave, "Alright, you have a good one now."

They're friendly, not polite. And these same people often see polite people as being rude and aloof.

6/22/2006 4:20:57 PM

russia is a part of asia, not europe. i wish the media could atleast get that right.

6/22/2006 4:53:05 PM

Thel Russians I know are much more European than Asian in their behaviour. Maybe the definition is wrong.

6/22/2006 4:56:54 PM

So what exactly is the dividing point of Europe and Asia now? The maps of continents that I have seen put the western part of Russia (including Moscow) in Europe. The Russians in the far east are pretty damn asian looking from what I've seen.

[Edited on June 22, 2006 at 5:12 PM. Reason : .]

6/22/2006 5:08:10 PM

I found way more 'rude people' in NC than here in NY...Southern Hospitality is such a load of BS

6/22/2006 6:26:22 PM

behavior and culture doesn't constitute geographic continents. the russian terroritories lie on the asian continent. therefore, russia is a part of asia.

^ he's alive!!!!!

[Edited on June 22, 2006 at 6:28 PM. Reason : ]

6/22/2006 6:27:38 PM

Moscow is on the European continent.

Quote :

"So what exactly is the dividing point of Europe and Asia now? The maps of continents that I have seen put the western part of Russia (including Moscow) in Europe. "

6/22/2006 6:39:47 PM

Something that I have found in my very limited travels is that if you go to a place expecting people to be dicks, they'll probably be dicks. This can, in fact, be applied to many situations.

My last time in NY I had mostly good experiences, with my only bad experience being at the Guggenheim. I don't know why, but every human I encountered in that building was a jerk.

6/22/2006 8:01:16 PM

I believe the continental divide between Europe & Asia is the Ural mtn range. Russia is part of both continents, but I believe most of their population is in the Eastern part of the country, in Europe.

6/23/2006 1:44:25 PM

yes, the ural range separates the continents.

6/23/2006 4:58:30 PM

Russia is in Asia. Don't confuse yourselves and others.

6/23/2006 5:17:39 PM

yes, geographically, it is a part of asia.

but culturally, it is a part of europe.

6/23/2006 5:29:23 PM

but if you read back up, they're talking about geographically...where and how Europe and Asia is divided.

By the way....people in Asia are not impolite, they actually emphasize politeness in education more so than the US. The biased media just wanted Americans to be even more ignorant by making everyone here think we're the best in the world.

6/23/2006 6:01:11 PM

Quote :

"yes, geographically, it is a part of asia. but culturally, it is a part of europe. "

Jesus H Christ

WHere do you people come out with these statements.

6/23/2006 6:07:01 PM

I love how they lumped Asia together. How could Japan possibly be called impolite!?!?

6/23/2006 7:59:47 PM

esgargs, trapezius, indians/pakis from other boards. it doesn't take a genius

6/23/2006 8:06:58 PM

^^yep. Actually they didn't even test in Japan. Japan is absolutely the friendliest country I have ever been to.

Taiwan is damn close too, it should not have been #28 IMO. They just express it in different ways.

For example in Taipei you probably won't hear the store clerk say "thank you" after a purchase; however, they'll always welcome you into the store and thank you for stopping by. You'll hear "Huang ying guang lin" which is a very formal way to say "welcome, come in" and when you leave "xie xie guang lin" which is very formal for "thanks for stopping by".

Then just dealing with people on a personal level they are VERY friendly. Everyone is willing to help you out if you stop and talk with them. If you get to know them they'll let you sleep on their bed.

You have to stop and talk with people and not just test to see if they pick up your papers you dropped.

But why are we even discussing an admittedly non-scientific study by readers digest?

6/23/2006 11:43:19 PM

I thought reader's digest was more of a high school student publication anyway

6/24/2006 5:31:19 AM

It's for old people, I think...that's why we sell a Large Print Edition at my work that is huge.

6/24/2006 7:12:42 AM